


I'm In Love With A Monster

by sappho3010



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), But that's what character development is for my friends, Enemies to Lovers, Faeries - Freeform, Gay Zuko (Avatar), I️ sorta used Legacies as inspo but it's not really based on Legacies, M/M, Mild Blood, Sokka is kind of an asshole, Vampire Zuko (Avatar), Vampires, Werewolf Sokka, Werewolves, Witches, Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27663152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sappho3010/pseuds/sappho3010
Summary: Sokka is a werewolf who hates vampires. Hates them. But everything changes when Zuko, the emo vampire new kid, worms his way into Sokka's heart.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 95





	1. Welcome to My Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> I️ had a weird idea of Sokka being an alpha werewolf jock and Zuko being an emo vampire and this was spawned. The school setup is loosely based off of the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted from Legacies but the story/universe isn't really so you don't need to know anything about the TVDU to follow this. Basically it's just a boarding school for different kinds f supernatural kids. Also I️ lowkey have no clue where I'm going with this story but I️ hope you'll embark on this strange journey with me. It's my first Zukka fic so I'm excited. I️ also love just taking anything and everything and adding vampires so there probably will be plenty of cliché vampire/werewolf romance elements.

Zuko sighed as his uncle’s jalopy jerked to a halt. As if reading the young vampire’s mind, Iroh turned to look at him. He reached out to place a hand on his nephew’s shoulder before remembering his recent aversion to touch and retreating. 

“This will be good for you,” Iroh assured. 

Zuko scoffed, not even looking up, his downward gaze causing his black hoodie to cast a shadow over his face. 

“Yeah, whatever,” he replied. 

Iroh gave a resigned nod before getting out of the car and heading to open the trunk. 

Zuko followed and grabbed his duffel bag from the trunk before closing it and the two went inside. 

They went into the office and were greeted by a slender woman with long straight dark hair. She smiled at them with a grin so big it looked physically painful, revealing the dimples on her cheeks. Her thin eyebrows were raised high on her forehead as she spoke. 

“Hello. My name is Joo Dee. Welcome to the New Horizons Institute of Learning. How may I️ assist you?” she asked, smile unwavering even as she spoke. While Iroh found it endearing, Zuko was downright creeped out. 

“Hi Joo Dee. I’m Iroh and this is my nephew, Zuko. He’s a new student here,” Iroh explained. 

“Welcome, Zuko,” Joo Dee said.

Zuko was silent and did not even so much as make eye contact. He simply folded his arms across his chest. 

“He’s shy,” Iroh justified. 

They then went about the formalities of giving Zuko his class schedule and room assignment before Joo Dee informed him that another student would be there shortly to show him around. Iroh offered to stay and help his nephew unpack, but Zuko insisted that he went home. 

After a few awkward moments of silence where he waited in the room as Joo Dee merrily typed away on her desk with the same disturbing smile, the door swung open. 

In walked a brown skinned girl with thick brown hair and bright blue eyes adorned with a white flowy top and a blue skirt.

“Hi, my name is Katara. You must be Zuko,” she said, reaching out a hand for him to shake. 

He looked her up and down with his arms folded for a moment before speaking. 

“Germaphobe,” he lied. 

Katara nodded understandingly before awkwardly retreating her arm back to her side, awkwardly wiping her hand on her skirt as if there was something on it. 

“Okay then. I️ guess I’ll just get to showing you around then,” she said. 

Zuko only responded with a shrug before reaching down for his duffel bag. 

She led him to a large open space with sofas, tables, and bookshelves. The room was occupied by several students, and the sight forced Zuko to break his stoic unfazed demeanor. It was hectic scene with books and other objects floating around, a whiteboard with a marker writing on it that no one was holding, and even a student sitting crosslegged but floating in midair. 

“This is our common area,” Katara explained, her tone surprisingly nonchalant. 

She looked at Zuko briefly and took in his shocked expression before speaking once again. 

“We have all kinds of supernaturals here. This school is a safe space away from human interference where we can just be ourselves,” she continued. 

Zuko couldn’t help but cringe slightly at her words. He wasn’t supposed be there — wasn’t supposed to be one of them. He didn’t want to “be himself.” He wanted to be human again. 

Katara noticed Zuko’s discomfort but chose not to comment on it. Something about his demeanor made her just assume that he wasn’t the type to discuss his feelings, especially not to total strangers. 

A boy who appeared to be about Zuko’s age soon approached them. He was about the same height as Zuko, maybe a half an inch shorter, with the same brown skin and blue eyes as Katara, but Zuko (while he would never admit it in a thousand years) found an almost enchanting quality in them. His brown hair was shaved at the sides and put into a short ponytail. His blue tank top with the word “bruh” underlined and khaki shorts showed more than enough skin to reveal the muscular definition of his body. 

“Who’s the fresh meat?” he asked before leaning forward and sniffing. He then flinched slightly in what appeared to be disgust. “Oh, great, a bloodsucker.” 

Katara whacked the boy on the arm. The combination of this interaction and their resemblance made Zuko assume that they were siblings. While he had no first hand experience of a typical sibling bond, he had been around to enough other people to sort of recognize it. 

“Sokka, don’t be an asshole,” Katara chastised. 

Sokka shrugged. 

“I’m just saying we don’t really need any more of them around,” he said, speaking as if Zuko wasn’t even there. 

“Stop talking like that before you have to do another sensitivity training,” she replied. 

Sokka stood his ground, folding his arms. 

“You wouldn’t,” he said. 

“Try me,” Katara retorted, one eyebrow raised. 

Sokka threw his arms up resigned. 

“Ugh, fine, whatever,” he said before walking away. 

Katara turned to Zuko apologetically. 

“I’m sorry about him,” she said. “Most people here are pretty accepting. My brother’s just a piece of work.” 

Zuko shrugged. He didn’t mind, really. At least, he told himself he didn’t mind, but if he minded that would mean he cared and he had already sworn off caring. 

“It’s fine,” he lied. 

Katara gave a slight nod, unsure of what else to really say. She simply continued on with the tour from there. She showed him the cafeteria, a few of the classrooms, the gym, the auditorium, and the library, the most jarring part of the entire tour being that their librarian was some sort of giant long necked owl. He decided whatever information he needed he could probably just find on the internet. 

At the end of the tour, it came time for her to show him to his room. 

“Let me just check your room assignment,” she said, pulling out her phone. She unlocked it and pulled out the document, frowning slightly and clearing her throat. “Room 17B.” 

She then began to lead him there. It was up two floors and at the end of a hallway on the left side of the building. 

“Here’s your key,” she said. 

He took it from her, almost surprised to see that it was just an average looking key card. Considering everything else at the school he didn’t know what he was expecting but it wasn’t that. 

“You’ll be sharing the room with another junior,” she said as Zuko began to slide the key card into the door. 

A roommate was honestly the last thing he wanted. He just wanted to send as much time as humanly possible in solitude drowning out his thoughts with too loud music as he’d been doing since he moved in with his uncle. 

When he opened the door, much to his dismay, his roommate was sitting on the bed on the left side of the room. 

“Jet! I️ didn’t know you’d be in here,” Katara said, surprised. 

Jet, presumably, got up from the bed. He was a tall slender boy with shaggy brown hair and sharp angular features. He had a toothpick in his mouth for some reason, which he took out before speaking. 

“This is my room, Katara. You’ve been in here enough times to remember that,” he said with a wink, causing Katara to groan and roll her eyes. 

Just as Zuko felt like his day couldn’t get any worse, he was presented with awkward ex drama. 

“Jet, this is your new roommate, Zuko. Zuko, Jet,” Katara said, regaining her composure and trying her best to remain professional. “I’ll leave you to unpack and if there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask.” 

Zuko nodded. 

“Thanks,” he said. 

Katara then exited the room and with a snap of her fingers the door shut behind her. 

Jet looked at Zuko and rolled his eyes. 

“Of course they stick me with a leech. Look you stick to your side of the room and I’ll stick to mine. And don’t touch my stuff,” he said. 

“Works for me,” Zuko grumbled. 

Jet shot him a death glare before moving back onto his bed and taking his phone out. 

Zuko began to unpack in silence, trying not to think about how much he didn’t want to be there, shipped off to live among all the other kids the world didn’t know what to deal with. Still, as much as he hated it, he knew that this was his life now, and sooner or later he’d have to get used to it.


	2. A Cautionary Tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko meets another vampire who helps him navigate the social dynamics of his new school.

Zuko was hungry, which was quite the annoyance as it forced him to break his quiet solitude. 

At first, he had just tried to ignore it, hoping that it would just go away on its own (despite knowing otherwise from experience. While he hadn’t been a vampire for long, it had been long enough for him to know this much and to learn the consequences of neglecting his needs the hard way). But alas, the pangs of hunger were relentless, and he found that vampire hunger was so much more intense than any hunger he’d felt as a human. 

So, he forced himself up out of bed and made his way down to one of the kitchen areas. In it was a refrigerator that stored blood for the vampires, and it was one of the only reasons that Zuko was grateful to be in that place. 

That gratitude ended promptly when he saw someone already there, and he just hoped that she wouldn’t speak to him. The last thing he wanted to deal with was human interaction (even if it wasn’t technically human interaction). 

She noticed him before even closing the refrigerator door. When she did, she had two blood bags in hand and handed him one. 

“You’re the new kid,” she pointed out matter-of-factly, her voice nearly monotone as Zuko accepted the bag from her. 

The girl had long jet black hair which was half up in small space buns while the rest of it hung down and fair skin that contrasted it. Her bangs casted a shadow over her eyes. Her sweatshirt said “anti you” and so did her stern rbf. 

“Yeah,” he replied. 

He wasn’t entirely sure what to make of her. In a way, her presence was oddly comforting as she wasn’t overly friendly out of obligation like Joo Dee or Katara, but she also wasn’t rude to him like Sokka or Jet had been. 

“I’m Mai,” she stated. 

“Zuko,” he replied. 

Zuko opened up the top of the blood bag. 

“Just a head’s up, it’s cows blood. Not as good as human,” Mai explained. 

Zuko took a sip of it and shrugged. He didn’t want to taste human blood ever again anyway, despite how much he may have craved it. Too many bad memories. 

“I’ve had worse,” he replied. 

It was true. He’d had to take whatever he could get and the cow’s blood really wasn’t terrible. Besides, he was starving, and he managed to down the whole thing relatively quickly, eyes turning red and black veins emerging under them as he did so (a feature of his vampirism he had yet to learn to control). 

Mai still hadn’t even touched hers and handed it to him before getting herself another. 

“You’re brand new, aren’t you?” she asked curiously as he finished the second bag. 

“I️ just got here today,” Zuko replied. 

Mai shook her head. 

“No, I️ mean new new. As newly turned,” she said. 

Zuko shrugged. 

“Relatively, I️ guess,” he said. 

Mai sighed with what seemed to be annoyance. 

“They’re gonna eat you alive, here,” she said. 

Zuko gave her a puzzled look. 

“What do you mean?” he asked, confused. 

“Look, the wolves pretty much run this place and they don’t like us. So keep your head down and don’t draw any attention to yourself, got it?” she asked. 

Zuko nodded nervously. He figured that Sokka and Jet must both be werewolves. 

“Got it,” he repeated. 

“And avoid all of them at all costs,” she continued. 

Zuko swallowed nervously. 

“Um, yeah…I️ think my roommate is a werewolf?” he said. 

Mai rolled her eyes in frustration. 

“You think? You can’t tell? Ugh, what did he smell like?” she asked. 

Zuko found the question extremely odd, but by her tone he could tell that she wasn’t joking. In fact, she didn’t quite seem like a type of person to crack jokes. At all. Ever. 

He shrugged, unsure of how to even reply. 

“I️ dunno. Honestly, since I️ turned everyone just smells like blood to me,” he admitted earnestly. It was strange to him saying it out loud. Aside from when he told his uncle what he was (which he only did to try to convince the man to stay away from which didn’t work), he’d never really talking about becoming a vampire. Even though Mai was also a vampire, Zuko quickly found himself desperate to change the subject. “His name is Jet. Maybe you know him?” 

Mai nodded. 

“He’s part of Sokka’s pack and a class A douchebag, but you don’t want to piss him off,” she explained. 

Zuko nodded, just trying to take in all of the information about the supernatural social dynamics. 

“Basically, avoid wolves. Your safest bet is to stick with vamps, but the others shouldn’t give you too much trouble,” Mai continued. 

“And by others you mean…?” he asked. 

Katara had mentioned something about the school being a refuge for all kinds of supernaturals, but she wasn’t specific and Zuko wasn’t super well versed in any of that stuff. 

“Mostly witches and faeries with your odd kitsune or mermaid mixed in,” Mai utter nonchalantly. 

“Right…” Zuko said. 

A part of him just wanted everything to slow down. His entire world had all changed so quickly, and none of it seemed to be for the better. He wanted to go home, but he had no idea what that meant anymore. When he tried to picture it, neither his father’s house nor his uncle’s apartment above the tea shop came to mind. In fact, the closest thing he could even imagine wasn’t a place but a person: his mother, but she was long gone. 

“It’s a lot, but you get used to it,” Mai said. 

Speak of the devil, a bright beam of light shot through the door of the room they where in. Instinctively, Zuko put out an arm in front of his eyes to shield himself from it. As he did so, however, the light began to dim and a girl materialized in front of them. 

She looked at the pair with big brown eyes that were framed by long eyelashes and thin, delicate eyebrows. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, and she wore a pink tank top and a pair of jeans. 

“Mai! I️’ve been looking all over for you!” the girl exclaimed enthusiastically. She was far too perky for Zuko’s taste. 

Mai rolled her eyes. 

“For the millionth time, you could just walk in the door like a normal person,” she said. 

“Oh, but where’s the fun in that?” she pouted. 

She then glanced over at Zuko. 

“Oooo, who’s this?” she asked excitedly. 

“Ty Lee, this is Zuko. Zuko, Ty Lee,” Mai introduced. 

“Nice to meet you, handsome,” Ty Lee said with a wink which made Zuko deeply uncomfortable. 

“So, why did you want to find me?” Mai asked, wanting to get to the point. 

Ty Lee smiled widely. 

“Oh, right! There’s a back to school kickoff tonight and you have to be there,” she said. 

Mai shook her head. 

“Yeah, no thanks,” she said. 

Ty Lee then grabbed Mai’s hand and gave her puppy dog eyes. 

“Oh c’mon, please. Everyone’s gonna be there, you should both come!” she pouted. 

“You lost me at ‘everyone’,” Mai said, not being much of a people person. 

However, after what felt like about a hundred “pleases” from Ty Lee, Mai begrudgingly agreed to one hour. 

“Awesome! I’ll see you both there,” Ty Lee said, despite Zuko having been silent for their entire encounter. Ty Lee then poofed right out of the room much like she’d entered. 

“Speaking of a lot,” Zuko said, breaking there silence after Ty Lee left. 

Mai chuckled slightly. 

“Yeah, she’s pushy, but she’s cool once you get to know her,” she explained. 

“So, do I️ have a choice about going to this thing?” Zuko asked. 

“Nope."


	3. Life Of The Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Zuko goes to the back to school party, he has an unfortunate altercation with one of the werewolves.

Zuko wasn’t a party person. Or a people person. He had never even officially agreed to go, so why he was even there to begin with was beyond him. 

He looked around, seeing if he could spot Mai through the dark. His night vision had improved considerably after he turned, but Mai still appeared to be nowhere to be found. He was mostly surrounded by unfamiliar faces which made him anxious, but he decided it wasn’t as bad as running into Jet or Sokka. 

He then decided to focus his hearing, seeing if he could find Mai by her voice. It wasn’t something he was particularly good at, all of the sounds blending together and overwhelming him at first. That was until he heard something he found alarming. 

“Hey, I️ said leave me alone,” a girl’s voice said. 

“Oh, c’mon, stop being such a tease. Let’s get out of here,” a guy’s voice replied. 

Without even thinking, Zuko immediately rushed to the source of the sound. 

He ended up deeper in the woods away from the rest of the party. There he spotted a guy with long dark hair caging a girl against a tree with his arms. 

“Leave her alone,” Zuko said. 

The guy turned around slowly to face Zuko. He looked at him with his sharp light blue eyes. 

The girl looked at Zuko pleadingly with big blue eyes.

“Walk away, parasite,” the guy said. 

Zuko rolled his eyes at the cliché insult before taking a step forward. 

“Leave her alone,” he repeated. 

The guy clicked his tongue and clenched his sharp, square jaw. 

“Clearly, you don’t know how things work around here, so I’ll go easy on you. I’m giving you one last chance to walk away,” he threatened, his voice low. 

“No,” Zuko replied. 

He remembered Mai’s words of warning. Figuring that this guy was probably one of the werewolves, he knew he should walk away. However, he wasn’t scared of this guy, he wasn’t about to let him hurt some girl, and he also decided that he was most definitely an asshole that deserved to have his ass kicked.

The guy shook his head, eyes turning from their normal blue color to a yellow hue. 

“Wrong answer,” he said before taking a swing at Zuko. 

Zuko was quick enough to dodge him, which only seemed to make him angrier, fangs and claws now appearing in addition to the yellow eyes. 

He managed to swipe across Zuko’s cheek with his claws. It hurt, but the scratches healed almost immediately. 

“Hahn, stop it!” the girl said, pulling on the guy’s shoulder. 

Hahn pushed her back hard, causing her to fall back onto the tree. He looked back for a brief moment, and when he turned back to Zuko he was met with his fist. 

The two both managed to get more hits in, the upper hand switching between the two. 

Zuko managed to jump and tackle Hahn to the ground. 

Even after the girl was long gone, Zuko continued to beat Hahn, his anger getting the best of him. When he noticed the blood he’d drawn, however, he quickly jumped back, eyes going from the blood on his fist to the blood coming from Hahn’s nose and mouth. 

Hahn got up slowly and spit out blood before smirking smugly Zuko. 

“Oh, c’mon! Why stop now?” he taunted, seeing how close the vampire was to the edge. 

He wiped some of the blood off of his mouth with his fingers. 

“Is this what you want, bloodsucker?” he taunted, showing the blood on his hand. 

Zuko stared at him with a dark gaze, breaths growing shallow. He was almost certain he was going to kill this guy but didn’t know how to stop himself. 

Hahn just stood there and watched as Zuko’s eyes changed color and the black veins began to emerge underneath. With fangs bared, he began to charge at the werewolf, only to be stopped by someone else materializing in front of him. 

“Zuko, stop!” she shouted, holding him by his shoulders. It was Mai. 

Zuko didn’t listen, the smell of the blood and the sound of the werewolf’s heartbeat drowning out the other vampire’s words. 

It didn’t occur to Zuko until later that Mai wasn’t protecting Hahn: she was protecting him. 

While Mai was still attempting to get Zuko under control, two other werewolves showed up. 

One was a short girl with messy brown hair. Her dark brown eyes quickly turned yellow as she approached the scene. 

The other was Sokka. 

“He’s trying to attack me!” Hahn exclaimed pointing toward Zuko. 

Zuko finally calmed down just enough to stop trying to fight past Mai, and Mai turned around to face the werewolves. 

“Look, he’s new, cut him some slack. I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding,” Mai said nonchalantly. 

Much to Mai’s chagrin, Zuko stepped forward and spoke. 

“It was not a misunderstanding! You were harassing that girl,” Zuko said, looking directly at Hahn. 

At that, all eyes turned to Hahn. 

“What girl? What happened?” Sokka asked. 

Hahn was defiant and didn’t answer. 

“Answer me,” Sokka commanded sternly. 

Zuko couldn’t help but watch Sokka in slight awe.

“Yue and I️ got in an argument. C’mon man, you know how much of a tease she can be and-“ Hahn began before being cut off by Sokka’s right hook. 

Hahn put a hand to his face as Sokka turned back around to face the vampires. 

He only acknowledged at Zuko briefly before making eye contact with Mai and acting like he wasn’t there, which bothered Zuko. 

“Get your friend here under control. If he slips up again you’ll both regret it,” he said. He then turned to the girl. “Smellerbee, get Hahn to his room.” 

The girl, presumably Smellerbee, nodded. 

Sokka then walked away without another word. 

Smellerbee draped Hahn’s arm over her shoulders before walking with him. 

Mai waited until it was just her and Zuko to speak again. She sighed and rolled her eyes. 

“So I️ guess stay away from the werewolves wasn’t clear enough, huh?” she asked sarcastically. 

Zuko folded his arms across his chest. 

“He had it coming,” he replied. 

“Doesn’t matter,” she said. “Wolves run in packs. You piss off one, you don’t just make one enemy. I️ just hope you’re ready to deal with it.” 

Zuko said nothing and allowed Mai to walk away. He then began to head to his room, wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know this was kind of a crappy chapter. Just bear with me.


	4. Bad Reputation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When classes start, Zuko finds that he's already managed to establish a negative reputation for himself

Zuko entirely dreaded the first day of classes. He hadn’t known about the existence of werewolves for long so he didn’t know very much about them, but he did know one thing: they were a pain in the ass. 

He could run away. He could just take his things and take off without a trace, never having to deal with that school or its students ever again. Besides, it wouldn’t exactly be his first time being on his own. 

As much as it may of felt good to entertain the idea in his head, he couldn’t bring himself to actually go through with it for one reason: his uncle. The man who’d found him after his father had kicked him out and left him with no place to stay. The man who took him despite him being a monster who could barely control himself. He’d brought Zuko to the school with high hopes of him getting help with adjusting and finding some sort of belonging. So, it was for the sake of his uncle — the man who was far too kind for his own good — that Zuko had to try to make it work. 

His first class of the day was biology, and given that it was a supernatural school, and he didn’t even know what that meant entirely. 

He also realized how little he’d actually payed attention on the tour Katara gave him when he looked at the room number on his schedule and realized   
he had no clue where it was. In his defense, seeing all of those supernaturals for the first time was pretty jarring and therefore may have diverted a bit of his attention away from memorizing which hallway led to the library. 

It wasn’t until he found himself in the common room for a second time without intending to go there that he realized he was entirely lost. He looked around, only to spot nothing that led him where he needed to go and instead different groups of people stealing glances at him and whispering. 

“Yeah, that’s the guy that attacked Hahn.” 

“I️ heard he tried to kill him.” 

“I️ wouldn’t mess with him. You never know when he might snap again.” 

“You can tell it’s not the first time he’s done something like that. How do you think he got that scar?” 

“Finding everything okay?” one voice much closer to him snapped him out of the cacophony of whispers. 

It was Katara. 

“Uh, I️ actually can’t find my biology class,” he admitted. 

Katara nodded. 

“Can I️ see your schedule?” she asked. 

Zuko showed it to her, pointing to his first period block. 

Katara nodded. 

“Oh, you have Bumi?” she asked. 

Zuko nodded in reply. 

“Yeah…is that bad?” he inquired.

Katara shook her head.

“No, he’s just…eccentric. Your class is actually on the way to my Advanced Healing class. I️ could walk you?” she suggested. 

Zuko snorted sarcastically. 

“Sure you wanna be seen with me?” he asked. 

“I️ try not to listen to rumors. Besides, Hahn’s an asshole. I’m sure you had your reasons,” she said. 

Zuko was surprised. That interaction made him gain a lot of respect for Katara and he let her lead him to his biology class. 

He quietly took a seat in the back. He rolled his eyes when he spotted Sokka a bit closer to the front, sitting next to a girl with short brown hair.

The teacher started by taking attendance. When he read Zuko’s name, almost eyes turned to the back to look at him. Almost everyone was staring at him with the exception of Sokka, who didn’t even bother turning around. 

“Here,” Zuko said nervously. 

There were whispers that followed that Zuko tried his best to ignore before Bumi quieted everyone down.

He then went over the syllabus, speaking way too enthusiastically about dissections. He then got to assigning lab partners, reading off of his list and pointing to where they’d be sitting. 

He felt his face turn white as a ghost when the teacher indicated that he’d be lab partners with Sokka. Of all of the people in the world. Or, all of the people in the class, but still. He just had to get paired with Sokka. And he thought being Jet’s roommate was bad enough. 

He picked up his backpack and moved to the seat he was assigned to, next to Sokka. 

He expected Sokka to make some snarky or rude comment or maybe just glare at him, but what Sokka actually did was so much worse. He did nothing. He didn’t even react in the slightest. He didn’t even look at Zuko, and for some reason that really pissed him off, the way Sokka could so easily disregard his existence and act like he was invisible. It was the same at the night of the party, Sokka speaking directly to Mai and acting like Zuko wasn’t there at all. 

Still, more than anything, he was angry with himself. Sokka was undoubtably a class A douchebag, so why was Zuko letting himself get so worked up over him? Zuko had thought he’d sworn off caring. When did Sokka gain so much power over him? 

He decided that two could play at that game, even if it meant never completing a single biology lab all year and ultimately failing the class. He would be that dedicated to being petty. 

He didn’t even pay attention for the rest of class, but they were still going over the syllabus so it didn’t matter too much. 

For a while after that class, Zuko’s day went on fairly uneventfully. Sure, there were the weird looks he got and the whispers, but he tried his best to just tune them out with what little control he had over his vampiric hearing. Luckily, it seemed that biology was the only class he seemed to have with Sokka. 

So, things were fine…ish. That was until he ran into some wolves again, who decided that they weren’t quite done with him. 

They had managed to corner him into the gym, locking the door behind them. Hahn clearly didn’t want a fair fight, bringing another wolf with him. 

Standing beside Hahn was another werewolf that Zuko hadn’t seen before. Had they crossed paths, though, Zuko is sure he would’ve noticed him. The guy was a whole building, towering over all of them. 

“I️ don’t think you’ve met Pipsqueak,” Hahn said, gesturing to big guy next to him. 

This prompted the one with the ironic nickname to begin to shift, eyes glowing yellow and fangs and claws visible.

Zuko swallowed hard, trying to maintain his composure and not show any fear. There was no way he stood a chance against all three of them. 

Before they could even do anything, the three turned around, noticing a strange sound. 

The door to the gym was becoming encased in ice. When the ice fully surrounded it, the entire door shattered into pieces revealing the source. 

Yue. 

“Leave him alone,” she said. 

She was hardly recognizable. Sure, physically she looked the same aside from her stern expression and confident stance, but her voice was commanding instead of meek like the night he’d first encountered her. 

Despite Zuko recognizing the look of her standing her ground, Hahn remained unimpressed. 

“And what exactly will you do if I️ don’t?” he challenged. 

“This,” was all Yue said before moving her hand to command shards of ice to move toward Hahn, pinning his clothes to the opposite wall. 

A larger, sharper shard then moved full force toward Hahn’s throat, stopping less than a millimeter away. 

Hahn looked terrified. And it was satisfying. 

“When I️ said we were over, I️ meant it, so leave me alone. And leave Zuko alone too. Is that clear?” Yue said. 

Hahn nodded sheepishly, his movements careful. The shard then shattered in front of him and Yue exited followed by Zuko. 

“Thank you, for what you did back there,” Zuko said. 

“No, thank you. I’m sorry that you got caught up in all of this. If anything, I️ owed you one,” she said. 

Zuko nodded, thinking about what had just happened. 

“I️ didn’t know you had ice powers,” he said. 

Yue nodded, smiling slightly. 

“All mermaids have some water-related power. Mine is glaciokinesis. I️ rarely use it, though,” she explained casually, as if she was just talking about the weather. 

Somehow, the fact that Mai had mentioned something about mermaids did not seem to reduce the shock factor. He was able to recognize the irony of the existence of the supernatural being so jarring to him, being a vampire and all, but he still knew it was going to take a lot of getting used to. 

Zuko didn’t respond, so it was Yue that spoke again. 

“I️’ve thought a lot about that night. A lot of people would’ve looked the other way. You’re a good person, Zuko, and you shouldn’t have to suffer for that,” she said. 

Zuko’s muscles tensed. While he appreciated the sentiment, he couldn’t help but think about how wrong she was. He’d done bad things and had awful urges all in the name of his new vampiric nature. Being good just didn’t seem to be in the realm of possibility anymore. Even when he fought Hahn he almost went too far — almost killed him, and he wished he could say that was the closest he’d ever come to killing someone. 

So, despite Yue’s words, he couldn’t quite seem to rid himself of the gnawing feeling that there was absolutely no hope for him.


End file.
